Page 6

CHAPTER

THREE

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W hen my eyes cracked open, I realized it happened because of the knocking on my front door. Still groggy, I got up to answer it. I opened the door to Mrs. Grazia and my little Benny boy smiling up at me.

“Mrs. Gra— shoot ! What time is it?”

She laughed. “Eleven.”

“Oh, man. I’m so sorry. I forgot to set my alarm. Let me throw on some clothes real quick.”

“No rush,” she said, but half the day was gone.

I only got so much time with the two of them.

Hurriedly, I splashed water on my face in the bathroom sink before throwing my hair up in a quick, messy bun.

After wrangling on my bra, panties, a soft-pink V-neck T-shirt, and my gray joggers, I tied on my cross trainers and walked out to the living room.

“Hopefully, I didn’t take too long.”

“You’re fine,” Mrs. Grazia said. “You look very pretty.”

I looked down at myself. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have me around.”

Absolutely the truth, for so many reasons. Embarrassingly, I noticed my phone on the floor where I’d dropped it when Reece called on me last night and bent down to pick it up, swiping my purse and keys up off the table.

“Ready. Let’s go stuff ourselves silly.”

After swinging Benny up into my arms, I held the door for Mrs. Grazia to exit, locked it behind me, and led them to my car. Mrs. Grazia climbed into the passenger seat while I got my boy secured in his booster.

Traffic this time of day on a Friday wasn’t bad at all. I made the quick trip to a little diner we loved to frequent. The booth benches were made of that thin, uncushioned, uncomfortable coated wood, but the food tasted like Southern delicious.

Benny liked the table in the middle of the room best. We always sat there.

The waitress approached with menus. I ordered chocolate milk for my boy.

Mrs. Grazia got a plain coffee, but I decided to splurge this morning on a frozen mocha.

Not a new menu item, but I’d never ordered one before, considering the price and no refills.

But maybe because I had a pocketbook full of cash, which needed a quick deposit into my bank account, or maybe because I’d been spectacularly laid last night for the first time in a year and the lingering endorphins lifted my mood, but either way, I decided that I deserved it.

When the waitress brought back our drinks, I got my little guy French toast and sausage.

For me, chicken and waffles all the way.

But I ordered sides of biscuits, grits, and home fries too so Benny could try a little bit of everything.

After Mrs. Grazia placed her order, the waitress left and we talked about our plans for the day.

I took Mrs. Grazia grocery shopping when she needed it. She wouldn’t let me do the shopping for her. And I got it. She wanted to get out of her apartment, too. She still drove but admitted one time that she wasn’t so comfortable doing it in the busy traffic.

“How about we do something different?” I asked the both of them. “We always go shopping and run errands. What if we take the ferry to Sumpter today?”

“Oh, what a wonderful idea,” she answered. “I always love to visit the fort. I’m such a history buff.”

“Benny’s never been and I think he’d love the ferry ride.

” Then I looked at my son. “You want to go on a big boat?” I asked him.

His smile said everything. One of his favorite books was about boats.

I took him down to the water whenever I had the chance so he could watch them while I pointed out the colors or the size.

‘Big boat’ or ‘little boat,’ things of that nature.

Our drinks arrived first followed very shortly by our food—enough to feed five people, honestly.

After cutting up my son’s French toast and sausage into finger-sized portions, melting butter on the top, and drizzling the plate with syrup—Benny didn’t like too much syrup—I handed him his plate and it once again hit me how lucky I was to be here with my two favorite people in the world.

Was it a hard-ish life? Yes. But was it a good life? Definitely yes.

We ate and chatted about nothing important but important to me just the same because there’d been a time in my life when I thought I’d never have this. I often reminded myself to appreciate the little things.

We all silently signaled we were finished by tossing our napkins down onto the table, stuffed to the gills. I paid the bill with Mrs. Grazia trying and failing to give me money toward her portion. “Let me do this,” I said. “You are so good to me and Benny. I want to give this to you.”

She relented, and I put the tip on the table before she had the chance. Scooping Benny up into my arms, we headed out to the car. Our warm day had gotten warmer while we’d eaten inside the diner. I drove us to the Fort Sumpter Visitor Center, finding a place to park in the small lot nearby .

Benny wandered around the visitor center with Mrs. Grazia while I purchased our tickets and then we headed outside to wait to board the ferry.

He pointed to the ferry. “Ferry boat,” I said.

This one was made to look kind of like a paddle boat from the giant sign attached to the side.

When we were finally allowed to board the boat, the three of us headed for the stairs, taking us up to the third open viewing level.

Mrs. Grazia and I stood to either side of my boy, who held on to the white railing, pushing his face between the horizontal bars, smiling from ear to ear.

The ferry slowly eased away from the dock, moving out into the bay.

In total, the ride took about a half hour before docking at the island next to the fort.

We disembarked, with Benny holding my hand as we walked to the entrance.

The whole fort consisted of a partially crumbling brick exterior wall with open ground before reaching the buildings.

We took our time wandering around inside the building, spending a good hour looking everything over, reading the signs giving information.

I was really getting into it, having a great time.

And then, wouldn’t you know it, I heard a recognizable voice.

Reece stood next to a very pretty older woman with blonde hair who looked enough like him that they had to be related. Not thinking, I walked up to say hi with Benny next to me.

“Hey,” I said. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Rather than smile, his face dropped, a combination of shocked and stricken. We’d seen each other last night. He’d been in my body hours ago. So why the reaction?

“You stalking me now?” he asked, not nicely.

“Stalking you? No. How would I—I’m here with my son”—I pointed to Benny—“and my neighbor. She’s like family.”

“Baker,” the woman beside him interjected herself into the less-than-titillating conversation. “Who is this lovely lady? You haven’t introduced us. ”

“She’s no one,” he replied, and— ouch! That one hurt. No one? The hurt must’ve shown on my face because the woman took it upon herself to try to make me feel better. How humiliating.

“I have a feeling she’s someone. Maybe a girlfriend you’re not ready to introduce me to?” And at that, she sounded hopeful.

Her hopefulness got me. I couldn’t let her think we meant anything more to each other. She seemed a good woman, despite possibly raising the jackass next to her. “I’m not his girlfriend,” I said. “We know each other from the arena. I clean the locker rooms.”

“No. I know my son.” She pinned him and then, to my horror, me with one of those knowing mom smiles that I missed so much.

My mother had doled out the smiles like a smile ATM.

This woman reminded me of my mom in that way.

“Given his reaction, he either hates you or he’s very into you, young lady.

And I doubt you’d walk over to say hi to someone who hates you. ”

“We just—” I started to defend myself when Reece rudely cut me off.

“Jesus Christ, Ma. We fuck. That’s it. We’re not friends. She’s not anything to me but a good fuck.”

I gasped. He’d just said that in front of his mom and my family.

My eyes started watering. “Right,” I said, trying to regain some semblance of decorum.

“It was good to meet you.” I said the words, but my eyes, they refused to lift enough to look her in hers.

Mrs. Grazia shot Reece a death glare as she wrapped her arm around my waist. I bent down to scoop Benny up and she ushered the both of us away. The humiliation burned through me.

We walked back to the dock to wait for the ferry to approach. The confrontation with Reece put a damper on the day. This time, when we boarded the ship, we walked to the seating area of the first level. Benny stood on the chair to look out the window.

How could I have been so stupid? Yes, I knew we weren’t friends necessarily , but we saw each other at the arena all the time and we’d had sex in my bed last night.

Put those things together and it had to add up to some sort of relation-thingy.

At least enough for him to introduce me as a woman from work.

But to tell her I was no one? To tell her we fucked and that was it? I fumed. And then I squared my shoulders. There was no time to dwell on that. Mrs. Grazia still needed groceries and I still needed to hit the bank to deposit the purse-load of cash.

As we cruised the aisles in the store, I looked at Benny sitting in the cart and at Mrs. Grazia.

“How about my pumpkin lasagna tonight?” I’d learned the art of lasagna making from the best, Mrs. Grazia herself.

The pumpkin version was my own take on the classic.

Mushroom, spinach, and cheese smothered in a creamy pumpkin sauce.

I seasoned it with parsley, sage, and thyme.